F 83 
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Copy 1 



Presented by the'- 
KIIODK ISLAND HISTOHICAL SOCIETY. 



DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED BEFOEE THE 



EHODE-ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



Jcbruarg 6, 1855. 



ON THE 



LIFE AND TIMES OF 



JOHN ROWLAND, 



LATE PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. 



BY EDWARD B. HALL, D.D 




PROVIDENCE: 
OEO. H. WHITNKY. 

1855. 



•Hsc 



RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Providence, February 16th, 1855. 
Rev. Dr. Hall: 

' Dear Sir, 

At a meeting held this day, it was unanimously 
Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to Rev. Edward B. Hall, 
D. D. for the interesting and appropriate Discourse delivered before the Society on 
the sixth instant, upon the Life and Times of our late President, John Howland; 
and that he be requested to place the original manuscript upon the files of the So- 
ciety, and to furnish the same for the press, to be printed under the direction of the 
Committee of Arrangements, for the use of the Society. 

I communicate to you, with pleasure, the above Resolution, and remain 

Very respectfully yours, 

H. T. BECKWITH, Sec'y> 



DISCOURSE. 



The Rhode-Island Historical Society, in providing for an 
annual discourse, expressed a wish that the speaker would take 
for his theme, the Life of their late President. No theme could 
be more consonant with my own feelings ; though I am fully 
aware that the relation I have sustained to him, and a compar- 
atively recent acquaintance, may make it difficult to do justice, 
and only justice, to one whose life covered nearly a century, 
and yet comprised few changes or personal incidents of a public 
nature. It has been the fortune, and the choice, of many of 
our best men, those who have done not a little to make the 
State and the nation what they are, to lead quiet lives, within 
a limited sphere, doing nothing to astonish the world, putting 
forth no claims to a wide celebrity, content to live and die 
where they were born, toiling for those who most needed and 
could best appreciate their unpretending service. Of how much 
greater value, and more enduring result, such a service often is, 
than that of many whose fame is universal, need not be said. 
We deem it one of the distinctions of our country, and a glory 
inferior to no other, that neither wealth, rank, learning, elo- 
quence, or high office, is indispensable, to enroll a name in our 
proudest annals, and leave a cherished memory in the heart of 
the community. 

Whatever may be thought of the life we are now to sketch, 
there will be but one feeling as to the times on which it fell^ 
and the long procession of illustrious events which it witnessed. 
In referring to these, much must be repeated tliat is familiar ta 



6 

those who hear me, and incidents may be given that would seem 
trivial in tliemsclves alone. But nothing is trivial that illus- 
trates character ; and nothing should be withheld or lost, that 
can add even the smallest contribution to the materials of his- 
tory — especially a history, as remarkable for its private as for 
its public record. 

The traveller who visits that sacred spot which every Ameri- 
can ought to visit ; where the little band of exiled Pilgrims 
leaped from their frail barque, to kneel in gratitude upon the 
hard rock of a bleak shore and unexplored wilderness ; may 
read on a portion of that same rock, now removed and guarded, 
the name of John Howland. The same is found among the 
names of the forty-one who drew up the lirst constitution, or 
covenant, as a body politic, in the cabin of the Mayflower. He 
who bore the name is supposed to have been the youngest of 
those signers, a single man,'"'' attached to the family of Gov. 
Caiver, whose daughter he afterward married. The records of 
the Colony of Plymouth make honorable mention of John How- 
land, as " a godly man, and an ancient professor of the ways 
of Christ ; he lived until he attained above eighty years in the 
world ; he was one of the first comers into this land, and proved 
a useful Instrument of good in his place, and was the last man 
that was left, of those that came over in the first ship called 
the Mayflower, that lived in Plymouth. He was with honor in- 
terred at the town of Plymouth, on the 25th of February, 
1G73." 

Jabez, the second son of the first comer, removed from 
Plymouth to Bristol, then in Plymouth Colony, now Rhode-Isl- 
and ; and his youngest son, born in Bristol, the grand-son of 
the first John, was the grandfather of our John Howland. 
Thus directly was he connected with the pilgrim ancestor, there 
being Init three generations between. There can be little doubt 
that at the time of his death in this city, on the 5th of Novem- 
ber last, John Howland was the nearest living descendent of 
the first company.f Born in Newport, Oct. 31, 1757, and living 
there until he reached his thirteenth year, he then came to 

* Appendix, A. I Appendix, B. 



Providence, 1770, to serve as an apprentice to Benjamin Glad- 
ding, a hair-dresser. And his humble shop, the resort after- 
ward of men of all professions in Providence, may be regard- 
ed as the chief school whose advantages he enjoyed. In New- 
port, we cannot find that he received any regular instruction, 
even in the ordinary branches, out of his father's house. Yet 
to this there was one partial exception, not to be omitted. 
Once a week he went with other children to recite the " Cate- 
chism", to a pious woman, of whom he always spoke with grate- 
ful respect^ — -Madam Osborn — ;One of those venerable dames, to 
whom, as in other places, generation after generation had been 
wont to go. Those instructors, both religious and secular, 
have left their mark in every town and village. Humble as 
they were in rank and endowment, they yet, by the patient teach- 
ing of a life-time, laid the foundation of some of the best and 
most prominent characters in our favored New-England. Blessed 
be their memory ! They have given place to more cultivated 
teachers and higher seminaries, but their image lives in many 
hearts. Women may find a broader sphere, but will not easih^ 
render a better service. 

The boy, Howland, was taught to read and write by his fa- 
ther, and he read with avidity all the books he could find. But 
books were rare. The primer, the spelling-book, and the 
Bible, constituted the common library; and he has been heard 
to say, that finding three different editions of the Bible in the 
house, he read them all through in succession. After he came 
to this town,_ being busy through the day, he could only attend 
an occasional evening school for the study of arithmetic. 

He came too young, as his parents thought, to leave home, 
but longing to see the world, and believing the " Town of Prov- 
idence," to use his own language, " formed a considerable por- 
tion of our America." His appointed labor was not restricted 
to his employer's vocation. There was another, and much 
harder work, peculiar to the times ; the duty of going daily, 
with two pails and a hoop, from the west to the east side of 
the river, for all the water used in the house — as there Averc 
few dwellings, and fewer good wells, on the west side. Being, 
one of the youngest boys appointed to this task, and never very 



stout, he used to speak, even in his old age, of feeling still " a 
sympathy in the back" with the labor then performed. Great 
was the joy of the boys, when the water-logs were laid from 
^' Field's Fountain to Weybosset Bridge." 

But a more important incident has often been related by him, 
as making an impression on the mind as well as the body, and 
affecting his whole future character. Too puerile it may seem 
for grave record, but it illustrates the times, and also the power 
of a small incident to give direction to a life. There were 
then but five houses of worship in Providence ; the First Bap- 
tist, the First Congregational, the Episcopal, and the Friends', 
on the east side, and the Beneficent Congregational, under Mr. 
Snow, on the west. Mr. Cladding's family attended the last 
of these, and his apprentice went there also, sitting with other 
boys in the gallery. On one of the first Sabbaths of his pres- 
ence there, his companions amused themselves with eating 
chestnuts, some of which they accidentally or purposely dropped 
upon the floor, and scrabbled for them. The noise drew the 
attention of one of the appointed keepers of the peace near at 
hand, who instantly brought down his heavy cane upon the only 
visible head, that of the innocent Howland, who sat upright, 
while the other boys were after the nuts, on the floor. " I had 
no hand in the scrabble or the noise," he says ; " I only rubbed 
the bruised place, and concluded not to be there the next Sun- 
day. From that time I went to Mr. Rowland's meeting, in 
what is now called the old Town House ; and in that Society 
have continued to worship to the present time, except about 
one year in the war time, when we had no minister, when I at- 
tended Mr. Manning's Baptist church, and occasionally Mr. 
Snow's. Thus, had it not been for that handfull of chestnuts, 
I might have remained on the west side ; but for many years, I 
have been thankful for the use of Mr. Joseph Martin's cane." 

One of the memorable events which distinguished the first 
year of his residence here, was the removal of " Rhode-Island 
College" from "Warren to Providence ; an event in which he 
seems to have taken an uncommon interest for one so young, 
and without education. He often spoke of the dignified ap- 
pearance and excellent influence of President Manning, a sketch 



9 

of whose life lie afterward wrote. Bat diiferent and more 
stirring events soon followed. Early in 1772, only two years 
after lie came here, Providence was moved by the bold appear- 
ance and bolder destruction of the Gaspce, in Narragansett 
Bay ; an enterprise in which the ardent Howland Avoiild gladly 
have joined, and did join as far as he was allowed. Always on 
the alert, he had resolutely taken his seat in the bow of one of 
tlie invading boats, and was in the act of pushing off, when his 
master, who was looking for his boy, probably with some sus- 
picion of his intention, seized him by the wrist, and pulled him 
out, saying, " he should not go with those fellows, to get his 
head broke." The narrator adds — " Thus I have no part in 
the boast of being of the Gaspee party, which, the July orators 
say, was the first act of the Eevolutiouary struggle." But he 
was not long denied the opportunity of engaging in that mo- 
mentous conflict. 

And here begins the first of the three epochs, into which the. 
life we are penning, may be divided, marking the prominent re- 
lations which John Howland bore to his times, viz : liis connecr 
tion with the war of the Revolution; his offices and labors as 
a citizen of Providence, for more than four-score years ; and 
then, as worthy of separate consideration, his important agency 
in the establishment of Free Schools, in town and State. 

The opinion of every intelligent observer of the beginnings 
of that great struggle in which a nation was born, has an in- 
creasing value. It helps to elucidate the character of the 
period, and of the men who made it what it was, and were like- 
wise made by it in part. Mr. Howland judged for himself, of 
all he saw, and never feared to differ from the many, where he 
saw reason. He always said, and has left it in writing, that the 
Colonies did not go into that contest, for tlie purpose of separ- 
ating themselves from the mother country, or to set up a Re- 
publican form of government ; but as loyal subjects, asking only 
. for justice, and confidently expecting a repeal of the offensive 
and oppressive acts of Parliament, so that they could remain 
under the dominion of Great Britain. In his own language, 
characteristic of the man, lie writes — •• I know that hundreds 
of newspaper writers, and hundreds more of July orators, have 



10 

said, tliat wc fought for a Republican government, and to ob- 
tain tliis was our principal aim. This, I know, is not the fact. 
Until July, 1776, we never fought for Independence nor Eepub- 
lieanism, even after the battle of Bunker Hill. The Continental 
Congress, in their last petition to the King, used these expres- 
sions : " We ask but for Peace, Liberty, and Safety ; we wish 
not for any diminution of the Prerogative, or the grant of any 
new right in our favor. Your royal authority over us, we shall 
ever zealously support and maintain." 

At the age of sixteen, the earliest allowed, and in the first 
draft from this town, John Howland was drawn as a " minute- 
man," and marched with others to Newport, where their quar- 
ters were in " Banister's Barn," and their bed a hay-mow. Not 
long after, he was summoned to attend the funeral of his 
father, who had died suddenly ; and the singular fact is record- 
ed, that though Dr. Hopkins, the minister of the family, and 
Dr. Stiles, then pastor of another church in Newport, both at- 
tended the funeral, neither of them officiated, nor was there any 
religious service, it not being then a prevailing custom.* 

Two years after his first short campaign, John Howland, then 
eighteen, enlisted in one of the regiments which Rhode-Island 
raised, under the command of Colonel Lippitt. And the mo- 
ment he received the advanced pay, he hastened to supply his 
scanty wardrobe. As soon as he was equipped for service, the 
young soldier set off, alone and on foot, for Newport, to join his 
regiment. Arriving at Bristol at noon, he found the inhabitants 
in great alarm from the appearance of Wallace's fleet coming 
up the Bay, as if to attack the town. He immediately asked 
and obtained leave to join the few soldiers, who had been called 
to man the mud Battery, the chief point of defence. But the 
enemy changed his course, and Bristol being relieved, the re- 
cruit pursued his way, and reported himself at head-quarters. 
Soon after this, he had the satisfaction, not unmingled with re- 
gret, but now a necessity and joy, of hearing the " Declaration 
of Independence" read, for the first time, to the assembled 
people and soldiery, in front of the Court House at Newport — 

♦Appendix, C. 



11 

a ceremony wliicli closed with " three cheer?, and the swinging 
of our ohd three-cornered hats." 

We need not follow him through his brief, but active service. 
The scene of it Avas transferred from Ehode-Island to New- 
York, and thence to New Jersey, where he fought at the side 
of Washington, on Trenton Bridge, and again at Princeton, in 
battles on which the fate of the American army, and of the 
whole contest, seemed to hang. Nothing but the popularity 
and wonderful ascendency of Washington could have retained, 
beyond their term of enlistment, those soldiers whom Rowland 
describes as " half starved, half-frozen, feeble, worn-out men, 
with old fowling-pieces for muskets, and half of them without 
bayonets — and the States so disheartened, or poor, that they 
sent no reinforcements to supply the places of the handful of 
men, who, but the day before, had volunteered to remain with 
their venerated and beloved commander, for thirty days more." 
In February they were discharged ; and at that inclement sea- 
son, those same men, who from the first had been obliged to iind 
their own clothing, and were now without shoes as well as with- 
out pay, were left to get to their distant homes as they could. 
Our young friend returned on foot from New Jersey to Provi- 
dence — a long journey, whose varied incidents, trials, depend- 
ence upon chance hospitality, and twenty-one days severe ill- 
ness, he appears to have endured with even more than usual of 
his imperturable good humor and ready ingenuity. " When I 
had so far recovered," he says, '• as to be able to travel, I 
walked ten miles the first day, and the second sixteen. The 
ground was thickly covered with snow, so that I did not see 
land all the way. As I had not slept on a bed since I left New- 
port, (except when I was sick with the fever, I lay on a sack 
filled with hay,) I did not inquire for one on my way home, but 
felt well accommodated to wrap myself in my blanket, with my 
knapsack for a pillow, and my feet before the kitchen fire." 

At two subsequent periods, Mr. Howland joined those hazar- 
dous expeditions, the first in 1777, under General Spencer, and 
the last the year following, under General Sullivan, with a view 
to the dislodgment of the British from Newport, and their ex- 
pulsion from the Island of which they held possession nearly 



12 

three rears. These expeditions, from causes seemingly bej^ond 
control, were unsuccessful, and the regiments were soon dis- 
banded. 

Thus ended the services of John Howland in the Revolu- 
tionary war. That these services were purely patriotic, and 
had no power to kindle a passion for war, is evident not only 
from his ultimate course, but from his views expressed at the 
time, when the expression was proof both of humanity and 
courage. While in the army, always attending worship on the 
Sabbath when it was possible, he heard an eminent preacher 
who ascribed the calamities of the war, with all its moral evils, 
to the sins of the people, as a judgment ; and declared, more- 
over, that better times could not be expected, until repentance 
and reformation came. This, to Rowland's honest mind, was 
both poor reasoning and discouraging prospect ; since war itself 
was the fomentor of sin, and the parent of every vice. " We 
have witnessed little religious reformation,"' he says, " since the 
war began, and we know war never fails to produce immorality." 
Often lias he spoken, with his strongest emphasis, not only of 
the immorality, but of the infidelity, engendered in a camp, and 
in every community under the direct influence of war. And 
his latest reminiscences of former times, as well as frequent 
declarations through life, give evidence of a conscientiousness 
and allegiance, as true to God as to his country. 

Passing from the military to the social and civic relations of 
Mr. Howland, we enter upon a period which continued full sev- 
enty years — the allotted term of human life. Though he had 
been absent from Providence only about fifteen months in all, 
he found many changes on his return. A calamity which impov- 
erishes a country, may enrich individual inhabitants. The gains 
of privateering, like those of the slave traffic, though not to be 
compared in iniquity, are said to have been commonly very 
transitory. But such as they were, they improved for a time 
the aspect of more than one of our towns. The returning sol- 
dier found the wharves of Providence occupied by ships freight- 
ed with rich products, and families that he had left in penury 
had risen to a seeming prosperity. The effects of valuable 



13 

prizes, which in the earh' part of the war had been brought into 
Newport, were removed, on the approach of the enemy, to this 
and neighboring places, where they were safely lodged or deeply 
buried, from fear of further inyasion. But the English admirals 
contented themselves with the boast that they had blocked in 
" that nest of pirates up the river" — and the wealth remained. 
Directly or indirectly, it affected the condition of all, and its in- 
fluence extended even to the young man who was still an ap- 
prentice. For his master had been enabled to remove to a 
better stand, left vacant by his most successful competitor, who 
preferred the chances and the glory of privateering to those of 
hair-dressing. Now it was that " Gladding's" became the em- 
porium of public and private news, the fashionable " Exchange"' 
for the first gentlemen of Providence, together with many offi- 
cers of the army occasionally stationed here. It Avas a rich 
opportunity for the listening ear and retentive memory of one 
who had something to tell as well as to hear, and on whom 
nothing was lost. With too large a mind to be ever ashamed 
of his calling — as in true dignity, all honest labor is on a level — - 
every one may have heard him talk of the many heads, grave or 
gay, instructive or diverting, which passed under his hands, 
while apprentice, and afterward master. Nor was he restricted 
at any time to party patronage. For his sturdiest opponents 
loved to go to a place, where, in the oft quoted words of Judge 
Howell, ' they got more shaving for their money than any where 
else.' 

One of the officers who resorted there during the war, was 
the subsequent traitor, Benedict Arnold, then in the height of 
personal display and the fame of unquestioned valor. To the 
plain republican, he seemed one of the vainest of men, proud 
of his scarlet coat, " the color of the British uniform," says Mr. 
Howland : usually reading a novel while undergoing the daily 
operation of the indignant tonsor, and often declaring, in a loud 
and vaunting tone, that he would resign bis commission, unless 
soon promoted.* 

One of the first occasions on which we find mention of Mr. 
Howland, in connection with public ailairs, is at the great Fes- 

* Appendix, D. 



14 

tival in 1790, when Rhode-Island, late but loyal, accepted and 
crowned the Federal Constitution. The part which our friend 
bore on that joyous day, may cause a smile if we call it distinc- 
tion, but it shows the reliance placed already upon his judg- 
ment as well as fidelity, and shows also his readiness of mind 
and fertility of resource, among men of very superior advan- 
tages. At the shortest possible notice, after the company had 
assembled for the festival, he was directed by the officer in com- 
mand (being himself a soldier,) to prepare, on the spot, thirteen 
toasts for this unprecedented occasion — a duty not so easy or 
trite then as now. He performed it promptly and acceptably, 
using the public stairs as the only seat or tabic he could find, 
and writing amid the noise and jostling of the passers-by. If 
not the first, this certainly was not the last opportunity given 
him of showing his ability and willingness to work. We are 
struck with the frequency with which he was called upon for 
similar and more arduous labors, on all manner of occasions, 
rising from the most common Reports, to the dignity and diffi- 
culty of public Addresses. These were demanded of him, and 
sometimes exacted, beyond the usual degree. And though they 
had not been as creditable as they are, in the exhibition of men- 
tal vigor, good expression, and general information, it would 
still stand as a singular prominence, in a literary community, of 
one who had not had so much as common schooling. And this is 
what we claim for Mr. Howland, in this connection. That he 
had neither ordinary privileges, nor extraordinary gifts, yet ac- 
complished what he did for himself and others, constitutes his 
peculiarity. That he was self-taught, is not a peculiarity. Every 
man is self-taught, who has learned any thing thoroughly. There 
is a confusion of ideas, and much unmeaning talk, about self- 
taught and self-made men. In the true sense, men of letters 
and of professional training are often as really self-made, as 
those who never saw a college, or entered a high-school. What- 
ever is actually acquired — not simply given and received, told 
and remembered, but acquired — in school or out, in a library or 
work-shop, is necessarily attained by the man himself, through 
hard study, strenuous labor, self-culture, and self-manufacture. 
An abundance of help may be only an obstacle and injury. 



15 

The real honor belongs to him who works, and works wiselj^ 
with little or large aid. And the highest honor is, of course, for 
him who does most for his own mind and for others, not only 
without peculiar gifts or early opportunities, but with the add- 
ed necessity of constant manual labor, caring and living for the 
body and the present. How far he of whom we speak, was 
entitled to this praise, judge ye. 

No countr}', I suppose, has made such demands upon manual 
and mental labor together, as our own. And when to this we 
add the demand for rulers as well as workers, the necessity of 
a self-created and self-governed government, we may well call 
it a distinction. An illustration of this is to be found at the 
period of which we are treating, and in connection with an 
event just referred to — -the union of tlie States. After the 
struggle of the Revolution for liberty, there came the struggle 
of the Republic for life ; a harder struggle, in some respects, 
than the other — as it is always harder to live well than to fight 
well, and usually easier to conquer others than to govern our- 
selves. Self-government, on a new and larger scale than ever, 
was now to be the experiment. And its beginnings were dark. 
The whole country was in a state of depression, of which the 
hardest times since give us probably no idea. There was all 
the burden, devastation, and corruption of eight years of war- 
fare, with an Independence established, but shared hy thirteen 
distinct provinces united only by a confederation which proved 
a weakness and embarrassment ; while the chief property of 
the country consisted of paper and promises, which the govern- 
ment was too poor to redeem.- x\.nd when at last a Federal 
Constitution was formed, with a wisdom and foresight, all things 
considered, unequalled in the history of nations ; it was adopted 
slowly by the distrustful States. At the time which we are 
now contemplating, Rhode-Island stood alone, outside of the 
Union, practically a foreign nation, whose ships were shut out 
from our own harbors, whose trade was at the lowest ebb, and 
its inhabitants leaving its borders to go into the " United States" 
for subsistence. 

It was in the midst of these discouragements and doubts, 

♦ Appendix, E. 



16 

that an Association was formed in this town, simple in its struc- 
ture, modest in its pretensions, but of large aim and influence. On 
the 27th of February, 1789, a few gentlemen met at the house 
of Elijah Bacon, in Union street, and after conferring together, 
resolved to form a Society ; and forthwith appointed a committee 
to draft a Constitution, with the title of the " Providence As- 
sociation of Mechanics and Manufacturers," whose object should 
be to promote the industrial interests, not only of the State, 
but of the country, so far as their example or influence would 
go. Moving with all promptness, an act of incorporation was 
obtained the following month, and a correspondence opened 
with the mechanics of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and 
Boston. The response from those cities was friendly, declaring 
a union of purpose, but deeply regretting the want of union in 
government. To that union, most of the members of the As- 
sociation, if not all, were favorable, and their whole action was 
designed to facilitate the desired completion. A new impulse 
was also given to mechanical enterprise and ingenuity through 
the country. The first movement of the kind, in the State of 
New York, is ascribed to an appeal from this body. Alexander 
Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury, in reply to a circular 
addressed by him to the supervisor of Rhode-Island, was fur- 
nished with a schedule of home manufactures, prepared with 
great labor by several committees of this Association; for 
which Hamilton is said to have acknowledged his indebtedness, 
in writing that great Eeport so identified with his great name. 
In carrying forward the important objects of this Associa- 
tion, and directing its power to the best results, John Howland 
bore a part, not second, we are told, to that of any individual. 
Joining the Association the first year of its existence, lie was 
appointed to speak for its claims and define its objects, in one 
of its first public addresses, and was thrice summoned to the 
same service on later occasions — the first occurring in 1799, 
the last in 1825, when approaching his 70th year. In the ear- 
liest of these four addresses, which were all published, and are 
characterized by plain practical ^ense without display or ap- 
parent effort, he states a fact which gives us some idea of the 
changes that ho witnessed before his death, viz : that the first 



17 

team that ever arrived here from the neighboring State of Con- 
necticut, came as late as 1722, eiglity-six years after the set- 
tlement of Providence — and that then there were but two small 
ware-houses here, yet sufficient to hold all the merchandise 
brought to this place in the coasting craft. 

Mr. Howland acted as Secretary of the Mechanics' Association 
eighteen years, and was six years its President. Like all who 
are willing to work, he had work enough put upon him ; and an 
amusing instance has been told of his readiness and tact, 
when, on some occasion, the business committee having failed 
to prepare a Report which they were bound to make, half in- 
dignant and half in sport, he took up a blank sheet, and read 
off the Report with such ease and emphasis, that all present 
either supposed it to be written, or were ashamed that they had 
not done it themselves. Nor did this Society restrict its power 
to mechanical uses, but made it an instrument, as we are to see, 
of other and higher products. 

Few schemes for social or moral improvement were devised 
in Mr. Rowland's day, that did not share his interest and influ- 
ence. If men of twice his power of intellect and station would 
do as much as he did, or attempt as much, for the common wel- 
fare, society would wear a different face. There is a dread 
responsibility resting upon us all, which he seemed always to 
feel. The cause of Temperance found in him an early friend, 
acting as chairman of the first meeting on the subject, in 1827, 
before it became popular. The cause of Peace received his 
countenance, in ways that must not be passed over with a word. 
Early a member of the " Rhode-Island Peace Society," he was 
its third President, and held that office from 1837 to the time 
of his death. He believed in the possibility of promoting 
Peace, as he believed in the possibility of obeying the Gospel. 
He did not wish nor dare to doubt, that Christ knew what was 
in man, and meant what he said when he inculcated forgiveness 
of enemies, forbade retaliation and revenge, and taught, by his 
life and death, that evil was to be overcome with good. On 
these precepts and promises, Mr. Howland rested. And when 
toward the end of his long life, his grandchildren asked him of 
his own deeds in war, he shook his head and besought them 

3 



18 

not to fight. In his recorded recollections of the Revolution, 
there is a sentiment which finds such a Tcrification in the war- 
fare now waged by the first nations of Europe, that it sounds 
almost prophetic. " For the sake of humanity, I wish men may 
never make any improvement in the art of gunnery. Lord 
Chesterfield told his son, that whatever is worth doing at all, 
is worth doing well. But as the business of war is to kill men, 
I wish people may never learn to do it well." What a comment 
on this may now be read on the plains of the Crimea ! The world 
waits for the faith and victory of the Prince of Peace. There is 
a beatitude for those who do not themselves wait for the world 
to be converted, before they declare their allegiance to Christ 
and his religion. The cause of Peace may be derided and put 
back ; but if the Gospel be true, it will yet prevail. 

There is another Society and service to which Mr. Howland 
was devoted. His interest in the present, and hope for the 
future, did not make him forgetful of the past. With none of 
the narrowness of a mere lover and hoarder of relics, he cher- 
ished a filial reverence for his ancestors, for the founders of the 
Republic, and for all promoters of civil and religious liberty. 
He desired to rescue alike from destruction and oblivion, all 
that is of value in the liistory of such men and their times, 
whether of our own or other nations. His conversation evinced, 
as do his published writings, that for one of his limited oppor- 
tunities and a life of practical detail, he was a watchful observer 
and retentive reader of the great movements of the age, and 
of past ages. And what is more rare, and no less honorable, 
his whole action shows his willingness to give time and labor to 
that which is every one's concern, but as many seem to think, 
no one's duty — the preservation of facts and historical records. 
The Historical Society, by whose call we are now assembled, 
has cause to repeat with gratitude, and desires to retain in 
lasting honor, the humble name of John Howland. 

This Society, the fourth of its kind in the United States in 
the order of institution, owes its origin to the meeting of a few 
gentlemen, on the 19th of April, 1822, at the office of William 
R. Staples, whose interest and services, in this connection as 
in otliers, need not be told here. The history and labors of 



19 

the Society have been so recentlj' and ably set forth, in the dis- 
course of Professor Gammell at the opening of the Cabinet, 
that any thing further on that point would be superfluous. A 
complete and worthy history of Rhode-Island is yet to be 
written ; we trust we may say, is in the process of being writ- 
ten, by one competent to the task. And the task is neither 
light, nor in any comparison, unimportant. The very birth of 
this settlement, the principles of its founders, the strong and 
original stamp given to its whole civil and religious aspect, the 
separate provinces of the plantation itself, and its singular po- 
sition in relation to other portions of New-England — a position, 
and consequent character, little understood even by the nearest 
provinces, and often misrepresented, partly from the novelty of 
its own spirit of liberty, and partly from the prejudices and 
strange incongruities of the noble Puritan race — these, with the 
stand taken by the State in the aboriginal contests, in the revo- 
lutionary drama, and the formation of the Federal Union — all 
wait for the labors of such Associations as this, and such minds 
as are being formed in our own atmosphere. Meantime, it is 
deeply to be regretted, that the public are so indiflferent as to 
the materials of our own history. It is a neglect not easily 
comprehended, and may prove a reproach which the State will 
have more reasoii to feel than any other, if not speedily re- 
moved by its citizens in their individual or legislative capacity, 
that that small, imperfect, and altogether insufficient Cabmet 
should be the only visible monument or instrument of the pro- 
jects of such a Society. Sad, that the question should be forced 
upon us every year — " How shall we live ? How can we pre- 
serve even the little we hold, in materials and funds ? How 
carry forward the work committed to us, undertaken by so few, 
with so little encouragement ?"* 

John Howland was one of the few who early asked this 
question, and did all in his power to obtain for it just consider- 
ation. Though not one of the framers of the Society, we find 

* We are sorry to be obliged to state, that since this discourse was written, another 
vain attempt has been made to obtain aid from the GcTicral Assembly for the His- 
torical Society. The people of this State should cither abate their pride in theirowu 
history, or be willing to do something to save its perishing records, and give it to 
the world in a worthy and durable form. 



20 

him chosen to the office of Vice President at the first annual 
election, but declining the appointment in behalf of another. 
The less noted, but more laborious office of Treasurer, he held 
for nine years, and was then chosen to succeed Governor Fen- 
ner, as the second President — an office which he has held twen- 
ty-one years out of the thirty-four of the Society's existence. 
He was unable to discharge its duties for several of the last 
years, and at the age of ninety-one formally tendered his resig- 
nation, but was re-elected to the time of his death. We claim 
for him no extraordinary share of the labor or honor of this 
enterprise. But we say, he did what he could — and if this 
could be said of every one, the work would not flag. He knew 
himself, and neither in this, nor in any place, pretended to be 
more than he was. He knew to what he was equal, and what 
is less common, he knew to what he was unequal. The one, 
he was always ready to attempt ; the other, he left to those of 
better education or greater ability. He took a lively interest 
in all the correspondence of the Society, especially in that with 
the antiquarians and scholars of Denmark, from whom he re- 
ceived tokens of respect and marks of honor. At various times, 
he gave to the Society — all he had to give — hundreds of books 
and pamphlets. The records for many years show how unfail- 
ingly he attended the meetings of the Society, itself no common 
virtue anywhere, and uncommon there — while the Resolutions 
passed at the time of his decease, embody a comprehensive 
summary of the many services rendered by him to the Society, 
the City, and the State.* 

To many of Mr. Howland's public services, which were very 
varied, some of them of the humblest kind and some requiring 
constant attention for a long period, we can barely allude in 
passing. Of these, were his labors as town Audit for fifteen 
years, and town Treasurer fourteen, covering the whole period 
from 1803 to the organization of the city government in 1832, 
Avhen he declined being longer a candidate — his connection 
Avith the old " Providence Library," for which he labored many 
years, and of which he wrote an account, since appended to 
the First Annual Report of the Athenajum, running l)ack to the 

* Appendix, V. 



21 

year 1753, and showing that even then great pains were taken, 
and generous suras expended, by private citizens here, in making 
the first valuable collection of books, most of which were lost 
by fire; — his service to the Society, formed in 1820, for the 
" Promotion of Domestic Industry," the drafting of whose Con- 
stitution, and the delivery of the first Address, were literally 
forced upon him by the publication of his name without his 
knowledge and against his consent ; the forgiving man overlook- 
ing the offence, and performing tlie duty with a better grace 
than most men would — his early and earnest toil for that ad- 
mirable " Institution for Savings," which owed its origin to 
others, but of which he was Treasurer from the first until the 
infirmities of eighty-three years compelled him to withdraw, 
the Corporation testifying to the value of his services, performed 
several years without compensation. To these may be added, 
in a difterent province, his contributions to the " Rhode-Island 
Literary Repository," issued in Providence forty years ago, and 
containing, with other papers from his pen, the biographical 
sketch of Dr. Manning, referred to favorably and largely quoted 
by that ripe scholar and useful citizen, too early removed, who 
gave us the later and more complete Memoir of the " First 
President of Brown University."^'" 

In 1831, Ml-. Howland engaged in an important correspond- 
ence with the Rev. James D. Knowles, who applied to him for 
aid in collecting materials for the Life of Roger Williams. In 
that Life, as will be remembered, reference is repeatedly made 
to Mr. Rowland's opinion on several important points. We 
have read his letters in manuscript, with great interest, and 
trust they will be preserved, if not published. They exhibit the 
writer's characteristic honesty and sturdiness both of opinion 
and expression ; with an allusion to himself, which we venture 
to quote, as showing how calmly the good old man waited for 
the messenger, not the dread but the sure messenger, wdiom he 
supposed to be near more than twenty years ago, having al- 
ready passed the usual term, and being warned, as he thought, 
by peculiar symptoms. " I hope to write you further before 
long, if it please Him in whose hands my breatli is, to grant me 

* William G. Gocldard. 



22 

farther time ; for my health is failing, and my complaint or af- 
fection of the lungs, I deem incurable. Even if my health was 
good, my age, being now in my seventy-fifth year, would ad- 
monish me that I shall soon have no interest in the subject now 
examined, or in any other which relate solely to this state of 
being. If what I have here written should appear without 
form, I wish you to exercise candor, as I write under many dis- 
advantages as I can secure a moment's time ; and I wish you 
rather to doubt my capacity and abilities, than my good inten- 
tions."'^ 

But wc mnst hasten to the remaining province of personal 
and local history, inseparable from our subject, and deserving 
separate notice, though connected with others already consid- 
ered. 

There are many revolutions in society, and their leaders have 
very unequal renown ; sometimes in inverse ratio to the real 
greatness and usefulness of their achievements. No nation, and 
we fear it must be owned, no sect, as such, has learned to meas- 
ure the completeness or glory of human life and labor, by the 
Gospel standard alone. A new day will dawn, when, to train 
the mind and illumine the soul, shall be deemed by even the 
world of Christians, a braver and greater work than to pre- 
serve the body, or expose body and soul to danger and destruc- 
tion. Yet there is, among the cheering signs, a growing dispo- 
sition to distinguish between the glory of the conquerors, and the 
glory of the Educators of men. And among the Educators, we 
place him who provides for their increase in numbers, their ele- 
vation in character and power, and above all, the free bestow- 
mcnt and wide diffusion of their blessings. Such distinction, 
at the least, all will accord to John Howland ; and if there was 
any of which he was himself proud, it was this. 

When he came to Providence, and for thirty years after, the 
provision for public education was very small. The ^' Annals 
of Providence" tell us, — '' that the soil of Rhode-Island has 
never been peculiarly favorable to schools, or institutions of 

* Letter to Rev. James D. Knowles, February 2, 1832. 



23 

learning." At the same time we see that somctliing was done, 
very early, for general instruction and its permanent support. 
In 1663, little more than a quarter of a century from the set- 
tlement of the town, an appropriation was made, by the Pro- 
prietors, of one hundred and six acres of land, " to be reserved 
for the maintenance of a school in this town ; to be called the 
school lands of Providence." Of the benefit, however, accru- 
ing from this appropriation, there is no knowledge. It is not 
until 1752, nearly a century later, according to Judge Staples' 
history, that there is a record to be found of a committee be- 
ing chosen — " to have the care of the town school house, and 
to appoint a master to teach in said house." Two or three 
school houses were soon after built, but no more appears to have 
been done by the town, than to lease these houses to teachers, 
who must take their chance both for pupils and pay. Still 
later, and about the time that the lad, John Howland, first came 
here, a decided effort was made to provide schools for all chil- 
dren, and apparently they were to be free. Two extended and 
able Reports were written in favor of the scheme, but both were 
rejected ; and rejected, strange to say, by the classes who were 
to be most benefitted — the very poor, and those of small means, 
without education themselves. And is not this last fact the 
best explanation of that otherwise unaccountable blindness, 
which has appeared in some form, and at some stage, in all 
communities ? Moses Brown, in a note annexed, with his 
initials, to one of the able Reports just referred to, ascribes 
this delusion of the people to demagogues and the envious. 
Still that such men and motives should have such influence, must 
be owing to a want of knowledge in the mass, and is itself one 
of the best proofs of the need of popular education. Down to 
the end of the last century, resolutions were repeatedly offered 
in the Town Council of Providence, favoring the establishment 
of free schools, but were either rejected, or allowed to sleep. 

It is known to all, that the object was at last attained through 
the impulse and influence of the Providence Association of Me- 
chanics and Manufacturers, who scut to the General Assembly, 
in February, 1799, a Memorial, written by John Howland. 
That Memorial was referred to a committee, who reported fa- 



24 

vorably, by bill, the following June. The bill was referred to 
the freemen for instructions ; and the Instructions given to the 
Providence Eepresentatives — John Smith, William Rhodes, Tho- 
mas P. Ives, and David L. Barnes — were also drawn by John 
Howland. In October, the House passed the bill into a law, 
but the Senate postponed it until the session of February, 1800, 
when they concurred. Great opposition still existed, and an 
influence was brought to bear upon the people — whether like 
that before used, we do not know — through which the act was 
made unpopular, and in three years was repealed. For Provi- 
dence, however, the work was done. Honor to all, to whom 
the honor is due ! 

In one of the meetings of the Historical Society a few years 
ago, a paper of unusual interest was read by the Rev. E. M. 
Stone, containing Mr. Howland's own account of the origin and 
progress of the School-system, as taken from the lips of the 
aged and infirm narrator. This account, for the use of which 
I am grateful to the writer, tells us, in substance, that the mem- 
bers of the Association who started the project, were led to 
think and act the more, as indeed the Memorial sets forth, from 
feeling their own " want of education," and of mental facility. 
From talking, they determined to write for the scheme ; though 
only one, Grindall Reynolds, could be induced to furnish an ar- 
ticle for the Gazette. Mr. Howland wrote many ; and the first 
men of the town gave the plan their countenance, if not their 
efforts. When the committee of the Mechanics was appointed 
to draft the Memorial to the Assembly, a member ofi'ered one 
which began and ended in the usual petition-style — '' we will 
ever pray," &c. " I told the committee," says Mr. Howland, 
" I did not like the doctrine of that paper. It was too humble 
in tone. I did not believe in petitioning legislators to do their 
duty. We ought, on the contrary, in addressing that body, to 
assume a tone of confidence, that with the case fairly stated, 
they would decide wisely and justly for the rising generation." 
And, then, from out of that pocket which was seldom void of 
ideas, he drew forth the Memorial which was adopted and sent. 
A similar scene occurred in the committee chosen by the town 
to prepare the Instructions to tlie Representatives ; where such 



25 

men as Burrill and Bridgham thought there was no time to pre- 
pare and report that afternoon, already late, and turned to Mr. 
Rowland with the question — " What do yoii think ?" " I have 
got my opinion in my pocket," was the answer; "if you wish 
to hear it, I will read it." Their work was done, and well done. 
It was not that he assumed anything ; but he knew the value of 
time, he saw that this was the moment to strike, and fearing 
that no one else would be ready, he had given most of the pre- 
vious night to the careful preparation of this paper. Nor were 
his labors confined to Providence. Other towns were still more 
doubtful, and he wrote to prominent men, and went himself to 
Newport, to see that at least proper information was given, and 
all just means used for a great end. 

And not promptness only, but courage also, and adroit- 
ness, the knowledge of men, and the power of using men, 
are seen in this as in other positions. After the new system 
had been adopted, it was to be carried into effect. For this 
the first requisite was money, and a much larger sum than 
had ever been appropriated for such an object. Here came, 
as usual, the hottest of the battle, and great danger of de- 
feat. Mr. Rowland moved, in town meeting, the large ap- 
propriation, as it then was, of four thousand dollars. Many 
thought it altogether too much ; but the most vehement and cun- 
ning opposers insisted that a larger sum should be named, hoping 
thus to defeat the whole project. After listening some time to 
the discussion, Mr. Howland quietly said, that as some present 
desired a larger amount, he would amend his motion by pro- 
posing six thousand instead of four. This was instantly sec- 
onded by an opponent. The motion was put, and adopted ! to 
the amazement and angry excitement of the opposers, who said 
to the bold man, " You have taken us in." " You have taken 
yourselves in, and I am glad of it," he replied. Again, the 
work was done. 

In all this, nothing impresses us more, than to see an unlet- 
tered man, with no commanding station, property, or alliance, 
take his place, and a place assigned rather than sought, at the 
side of men like President Maxcy, Judge Barnes, Dr. Gano, 
Dr. Hitchcock, and James Burrill ; and not merely in the pre- 



26 

liminary or the financial work, but also in the intellectual ; the 
preparing a system of Rules, arranging the Studies, and choos- 
in<r the Books, that were to constitute the basis of free instruc- 
tion, for a whole community — a task, which those able, profes- 
sional men, did not so much share with their chosen compeer, 
as commit to him alone. He felt unequal to it, but he would 
not draw back. Grammar and Geography were to be intro- 
duced as new studies — and the books were not here, and to 
him not known. Hear his courageous confession. " Up to this 
time, I had never seen a grammar ; a sorry confession for a 
school-committee man, some may think." He learned what books 
were used in Boston ; and the " Young Lady's Accidence," and 
" Morse's Geography" were obtained, the rules he had drawn 
were adopted, and a system went into operation whose influ- 
ence will never cease. If hereafter it shall be asked who was 
the Father of the Free School system in Rhode-Island, and any 
one shall be thought worthy of the honor — who will it be ? 

There is something touching in the tone with which the man 
of fourscore and ten concludes this account of an experience 
not common. " To some," he says, " this recital may seem 
egotistical. But I have no such feeling. I was so constantly 
connected with the school movement, that I cannot speak of it 
without speaking of myself. I take no improper pride in the 
part r acted. If better educated and more influential men had 
seen fit to take the lead, I should have been contented to fol- 
low. But I felt that somebody must do the work, and as others 
would not, I resolved that I would. I thank a kind providence, 
that I have been able, in my humble way, to be of service to 
ray fellow-men ; and I wish to occupy no other place in their 
memories, or the page of history, than that which truth shall 
assign me." 

And what place, we might now ask, does truth assign him ? 
They will best answer who knew him best, they who were as- 
sociated with him, they who have read or heard of his services, 
and the many who are tasting, or may hereafter taste, the fruit 
of liis labors. 

His life covers an immense space ; much more than a third 
part of our national existence. View it in a single relation. 



27 

Three years of age when George the Third ascended the 
throne. John Howland saw the whole of that sixty years' reign, 
and three successive sovereigns crowned afterward, in the land 
of which he was born a subject— while he participated in the 
election, or witnessed the accession, of fourteen Presidents of 
the new Republic which he helped into existence just at the 
time of his own maturity ! And has any man lived at a more 
critical period, marked by more or greater revolutions, discov- 
eries, institutions, improvements ? Take the one province at 
which we last glanced, in the local sphere of his active service. 
Instead of the four schools first established in tliis town, under 
the new system, he lived to sec forty-eight; the nine original 
teachers have multiplied to one hundred and twelve ; the sum 
appropriated for the support of the schools, has risen from six 
thousand dollars to forty-two thousand; and most of all, the 
number of children availing themselves of these advantages, has 
grown from nine hundred and eighty-eight, in the first year, 
to more than six thousand in the last. Of other changes, in 
the character of the schools, in the buildings they occupy, the 
ability of the teachers, and the proficiency of the scholars, were 
we to judge from personal observation during the last half of 
the Free-School period, we should say that not the aged alone, 
but all of every class have reason for emotions better than 
pride — devout gratitude and generous confidence. This will 
not be the least, it may be made the largest and brightest page 
of the history of Rhode-Island. 

In 1835, the Board of Fellows of Brown University con- 
ferred upon Mr. Howland the Degree of Master of Arts — an 
honor which he fully appreciated. We have not thouglit it 
necessary to name the honors of membership bestowed by va- 
rious bodies, or the numerous applications made to him for in- 
formation which it was thought he could best give, on the char- 
acters and incidents of the past. 

His last public service was performed, as was fitting, in his 
native town. In the winter of 1841, at the age of eighty-four, 
he went to Newport, by invitation of the Association of Me- 
chanics, and delivered an historical Discourse, fraught with re- 
miniscences interesting to all, a brother five years older than 
himself being one of his hearers. 



28 

At home, he continued vigorous in mind, and in many t^ays 
active, beyond the age of ninety. His interest in all associa- 
tions to which he belonged, as officer or member, was unabated ; 
and he was present at their gatherings, on all important occa- 
sions, as long as he could walk or be carried. From the first 
annual meeting of the Mechanics' Association, to the sixtieth, 
it is said he was not once absent. So of other calls, and the 
ordinary duties of a citizen ; he was true to all, to the utmost 
verge of his strength. " He that is faitliful in that which is 
least, is faithful also in much," seems to have been revered by 
him as one of the Master's laws ; and well was it illustrated in 
his own life. His life was his religion ; and religion crowned 
the evening of his protracted day, with its serene and holy 
light. 

In drawing this sketch of the man and his times, we have at- 
tempted no completeness of portraiture ; and in closing it, we 
claim no meed of admiration for its subject, beyond the award 
of simple justice. He was not a lover of eulog}^, and we will 
not affront the simplicity and sincerity of his image, visible to 
us still, and peculiarly /tere.* All that was in him was open as 
the day. Downright honesty was written on his whole frame. In 
its dealing with others, this honesty passed often into bluntness, 
and some persons it may have troubled, possibly oftended, for 
a moment — but beneath its roughest show, there dwelt the kind- 
liness of a woman's heart. He had great power of expression, 
and he never feared to use it. He had an inexhaustible fund 
of humor, and he loved to indulge it, and to see others enjoy 
it. Never censorious, or willingly unjust, he was perfectly frank^ 
and said what he thought in the way most natural to him. 
Taking his opinions from no one, he asked no one's leave to 
keep them. But he respected the opinions of others, and 
thought more of character than of complexion. There were 
leaders and politicians who found no favor with him, and would 
not have felt flattered if they had heard him speak of them — 
as they certainly would, if they went near enongh. But he was 

* The discourse was delivered in the First Congregational Church, of which he 
was so long a member and officer. 



29 

never indiscriminate or implacable. He once said, having in 
vie^v an old partizan and opponent — " If a man has been wrong 
for seventy years, and then for five years does .right, he ought 
to be forgiven." 

In his own political creed, Mr. Howland lived and died in 
tlie school of Washington and Hamilton-^— than which none 
purer, none nobler in power or patriotism, can we expect to 
see ! But the hope of political distinction was never his infir- 
mity. He aimed only to be useful. And here is the lesson of 
his life j a great lesson, for young and old. If one word will 
define his public course, either in its object or result, it is Use- 
fulness. With strong native sense, such as early culture might 
have made eminent— with a memory not often surpassed, either 
in extent or accuracy, perhaps his distinguishing mental trait, a 
very storehouse of facts, anecdotes, and illustrations, historical, 
political, personal, and often wonderfully graphic — with these, 
he united an insatiable thirst for knowledge, not to be hoarded 
or exhibited, but used ; and used, not for his own benefit, but 
for others' good. From first to last, there seems to have been 
in him this passion, say, rather, this high attribute — viz : a wil- 
lingness always to work, and to work in the humblest way — 
with a sense of accountableness for the use of all power, how- 
ever limited, and an interest in the progress of his country and 
the race, such as turned all ambition into the desire and en- 
deavor to be useful. 

Of his private friendships and domestic fidelity, of his consci- 
entiousness in the smallest as in the largest duties, of his pre- 
vailing mood and real affections, where they most appear, at 
home — and most of all, of his Christian Faith, unpretending, 
but firm as the rock on which it rested — we could speak strong- 
ly. But we must not. In a conversation with him, some years 
ago, upon his early life, he told me, that at one time, partly in 
consequence of what he saw and felt during the war, and partly 
from religious dissensions, he became perplexed and sceptical, 
and spent his Sabbaths at home in reading — not, as do many, 
to confirm his doubts, but to dispel them. After going care- 
fully through Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, and listening to 
Dr. Hitchcock's first discourses on the Evidences of Religion, 



30 

he became a settled believer and happy Christian. Eighty years 
a worshipper with this Society, occasional at first, and then 
never absent ; forty-six years a member of the church, and nearly 
half that time in the unfailing discharge of the ofiice of Deacon — 
we witnessed his devotion to God, his faith in Christ, and his 
conviction of the dependence of men and nations on the insti- 
tutions of Religion, and the temper of loyalty to the King of 
kings. 

In the autumn of 1847, the Pastor of this church received a 
brief but aifecting communication, written that Sabbath morn- 
ing, with a tremulous hand, but a mind clear and calm, in these 
words — omitting only an official reference. 

^^ Dear Sir: This day, October 31, 1847, I have arrived at 
the age of ninety years ; and knowing the infirmities attending 
my advanced years, I desire to relinquish the duties confided to 
me by the church. The decay of my faculties, especially of my 
memory and hearing, admonish me that it is my duty thus to 
determine. * * * My attachment to the church has not 
abated by age ; I pray for the increase of its members, and for 
their future prosperitv, which I hope its great and glorious 
Head will grant. I acknowledge with gratitude the mercy and 
protection which it has pleased God (the author of my being) 
to grant me through a long life ; and am now awaiting its close, 
with calmness and resignation, in the humble and somewhat 
confiding hope of entering on a better state of existence, 
through his infinite grace. John Howland." 

In a more extended, private record, written for a devoted 
daughter after he was seventy — a record to which I am largely 
indebted, but whose sacredness has restrained me from a free 
public use — there are passages toward the close, beautifully ex- 
pressive of temporal as well as spiritual satisfaction ; and com- 
ing from one who had never known abundance, and may have 
known something of the opposite, it is an example that should 
not be withheld. Thus he writes : " There is not a man now 
living, who owned any of the property in this town when I came 
to live here. I am among other generations, and in the midst 



31 

of strangers. I am frequently enquired of, respectino; those 
who have long smce departed. It is a melancholy reflection 
but I have no complaint to make. * * * I am in the constant 
acknowledgment of the great mercy of God, for the many bless- 
ings I have received from his adorable bounty. I have been 
generally favored with health; though it has pleased God to 
call many of our children to a better state of existence. I 
have never suffered for the want of money ; I have always had 
enough for a comfortal)le support, and that is all that is neces- 
sary here." 

" We spend our years as a tale that is told." Life is a vapor. 
An hand-breadth or a long age, it vanisheth away. And mys- 
terious is the passage. Awe-inspiring are the ways of God, 
with the soul He sends. Now it looks upon the world an in- 
stant, and the unconscious eye closes forever. Now it lives, 
and lives, as if it were not to taste of death. Long has it out- 
lived nearly every one that came with it. Multitudes of the 
young, the active, the robust, and the mighty, has it seen flitting 
like shadows over the plain — and still it lives — talks of the 
buried past to those who are of yesterday, converses with 
death as familiarly as with life, feels the growing burden, fears 
delay, yet murmurs not, but trusts and waits — buoyant and 
lethargic by turns, old, youthful, a boy, a babe — and still the 
same, and still how changed ! 

At length, the race is run. The keepers of the house trem- 
ble, and those that look out of the windows are darkened. The 
strong man bows himself down. Gently the silver cord is 
loosed, silently the golden bowl is broken. Once and again it 
wakes, revives, rallies its forces, and flashes as with its wonted 
fire. The man re-appears. The father and the friend returns. 
The strong affections, clinging not to life but to those who live, 
are movingly tender. A child approaches ; and at the sound 
of the voice, and the expression of interest and reverent won- 
der in that young face, seeing such age for the first time, the 
bowed form lifts itself up, a smile of sweet welcome irradiates 
the furrowed face, and the old man speaks, with the earnestness 
and playfulness of days gone by — in simple delight, from the 



32 

love of giving pleasure, he goes back to the events of his own 
distant childhood, and once more vividly portrays the scenes 
and conflicts of a stirring manhood. 

— " Rightly is it said, 
That man descends into the vale of years ; 
Yet have I thought that we might also speak, 
And not presumptuously, I trust, of Age, 
As of a final Eminence, though bare 
In aspect and forbidding, yet a Point 
On which 'tis not impossible to sit 
In awful sovereignty — a place of power, 
A Throne, that may be likened unto his 
Who in some placid day of summer, looks 
Down from a mountain-top." 

And when that mountain-top is bathed in the beams of the 
sun of Righteousness, its light rays out over a boundless space, 
for an endless day. 



APPENDIX. 



A.-P- 6. 
A different account of the first John Howland's marriage is given by Na- 
hum JVIitchell, in his recent History of Bridgewater. He says — " John How- 
land came over in the first ship, 1620 ; his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Gov- 
ernor John Carver, and two children, John and Desire, came afterwards, 
1627." The difference, it will be seen, relates only to time. No authority 
is given for the statement that he married before he came, and left his family 
behind. Still it agrees with what is afterward recorded of a division of lands 
between the several families, and is as likely to be true as the other account, 
which rests only upon tradition. 

B.-p. 6- 

A few days after the delivery of this discourse, there appeared in the pa- 
pers a notice of the death, in Duxbury, Mass., of Sophia Bradford, at the 
age of ninety-four ; " grand-daughter of the Hon. Gamaliel Bradford, Judge 
of the County Court, and member of the Council in Provincial times ; and 
ihe fifth in direct line of descent from William Bradford, second Governor of 
Plymouth Colony." This makes her to have stood in the same relation to the 
first company, as John Howland ; and must therefore qualify the assertion, that 
he was the nearest living descendent at the time of his death. 

C.-p. lO. 
The statement that there were no religious services at the funeral referi'ed 
to, the custom not being then prevalent ; will seem incredible to many. I can- 
not cite the authority, but I have seen the fact stated in other places ; and it 
has been ascribed to the early Puritan prejudices against the Catholics, and 
their ceremonies for the dead. At all events, Mr. Howland was not a man 
to forget or misstate such a fact, and the account may be of sufficient interest 
to be given in his own words. " In the year 1774, my father died suddenly 
in Newport ; and Mr. Edward Bosworth, of Barrington, my father's near re- 



34 

lation, being then there, came to Providence for me to accompany him to 
Newport, to attend the funeral. There were two churches of the Congrega- 
tional order in Newport ; the first, in which Doct. Hopkins had been settled 
three or four years ; and that of Doct. Ezra Stiles. My father being a prom- 
inent member of the first, Doct. Hopkins and Doct. Stiles both attended and 
walked together in the procession. It was not the practice then in Newport, 
as it is at present, for a prayer or address to be offered at a funeral, and neither 
of these clergymen ofiiciated or said anything at the house. This Doct. Hop- 
kins is the same who introduced what was then called the new divinity into 
the Calvinistic churches, under the name of Hopkinsianism. My father did 
not adopt his sentiments, though he continued in the Society. Neither did 
Doct. Stiles, who was afterwards President of Yale College ; but they did not 
abate their friendship for each other." 

D.-P- 13. 
Mr. Rowland's description of Benedict Arnold, and of a scene between him 
and a plain American, is worth giving at length, in his own words. " Glover's 
Brigade, and several companies of artillery, after the capture of Burgoyue, 
were stationed here, with old General Stark's and General Arnold. Glover's 
quarters were in the house of Richard Jackson, part of the time of his com- 
mand here ; Arnold's in the house then owned by Nathaniel Greene, which 
was afterwards bought by Governor William Jones, westward of the bridge. 
Ai-nold, though he had been one of the best fighting generals in the army, 
was. a proud and vain man. He wore a scarlet coat, which was the color of 
the British uniform. I attended every morning at his quarters, and dressed 
his hair. While under this operation, he generally read a novel ; and I was 
surprised, knowing him to be one of the most celebrated military characters, 
to see him so employed, as out of the way of his profession. Among the gen- 
tlemen with whom he associated, he frequently declared that he would resign 
his commission unless he was soon promoted. In company one day, he de_ 
clared his intention of resigning, when old Commodore Whipple said — ' Gen- 
eral, I know you won't resign.' Arnold asked why he doubted his positive 
declaration? The Commodore replied, 'Because, General, you are the 
proudest man that ever I seed ; and I know you won't quit your uniform, 
your epaulets, and command, to be a private man — for I tell you, you are the 
proudest man that ever I seed.' " 

In this connection, many may be glad to see an account, by the same pen, 
of General Burgoyne's passing this way, after his surrender. " I do not re- 
collect exactly the time, but think it must have been in the spring of 1778, 
that the General set off from Cambridge in a coach, accompanied by JNIajor 
Trescot, of our army, to see him provided for on the road ; as it was his inten- 
tion to go first to Newport to embark from there or from New York. He 
was not suffered to come through Providence, to see the nakedness of the 
land ; but drove through North Providence and over Tar bridge, to Kit 01- 
ney's, who kept the public house in Olneyville, where he dined. The village 



35 

was filled with the idle and the curious from town, to see a man who had 
made such a noise in the world, when he should light from the coach. I did 
not go out to pay him so much honor. After dinner, they entered the car- 
riage again, and drove to Pawtuxet, where a packet boat was waiting for them. 
The principal British officers received them on landing, and conducted the 
General to Plead Quarters. Our Major Trescot was a noble looking officer, 
and was treated with polite attention. The next day, he enquired for a hard- 
ware shop, as he wished to purchase a pair of spurs. The British officer 
waited on him to the shop of Mr. Arault ; and while he was choosing a pair 
of silver spurs, another officer entered the shop, and addressing the one who 
accompanied Trescot, said — ' Do the Americans want spurring V' The Ma- 
jor, turning partly round to him, replied — ' Ask General Burgoyne, sir ; I un- 
derstand he is in town.' " 

E.-P- l/j. 
To us at this day, and especially to the young, it sounds odd and almost 
fabulous, to hear men talk of giving a hundred dollars for one. Mr. Rowland 
relates the following, as occurring at the time of the reduced currency. " I 
recollect that I called in at Peter Taylor's hatter's shop, as I was on my way 
home to dinner, and asked him the price of a castor hat. He said it Avas four 
hundred dollars. I selected one which fitted me, and told him on my return 
I would call and pay for it, and take it. On my return, perhaps an hour af- 
terward, I stopped with my bundle of money, to pay for and take the hat. He 
th*n told me he had been calculating what he could buy the stock for to make 
up another batch of hats, and found that at four hundred dollars he could 
only replace the stock, without allowing anything for his work ; but as he had 
agreed with me for the price, he should charge me no more. I told him I 
did not wish to have the hat for less than its present value, and asked him 
what it now ought to be. He said about four hundred and fifty dollars ; which 
I readily paid him, and told him I was glad I had called to-day, for if I had 
waited until to-morrow, it might have been five hundred dollars ! Some time 
afterward, I purchased a French cocked beaver hat, for five hundred dollars." 

F.-p. 30. 

" At a special meeting of the Rhode-Island Historical Society, held Novem- 
ber 6, 1854, 

It having been announced that John Howland, who for the last twenty-one 
years has worthily filled the office of President of the Society, departed this 
life on the fifth instant, at the advanced age of ninety-seven years, it is there- 
fore. 

Resolved, That, in common with our fellow citizens, we, by this event, arc 
called to mourn the departure of one whose faithful and conscientious dis- 
charge of various public trusts, entitles him to the grateful remembrance of 
the community in which he lived and died ; a community, for whose welfare 
he was ever ready to unite in any work of moral or intellectual improvement; 
and which is deeply indebted to his early efforts for the advancement of its' 



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36 

014 111 318 5 

nierhanic arts, and the development of its industrial resources ; to tlie pcrse- 
verino- enersjv and enlightened zeal ■which directed his exertions for the es- 
tablishment of its Public Schools, for the active benevolence of his labors in 
the founding and management of its first Institution for Savings, its Society 
for the promotion of Peace, and its first Association in the cause of Temper- 
ance. 

llesolved, That in this event, we mourn the breaking of the last living tie 
which united us as a body "with those who bore the toils and met the dangers 
of our Revolutionary conflict, which has severed our earthly connexion with 
one who stood with Washington on the field of battle, and who aided with his 
voice and his pen, in the consohdation of the union of the States, and in the 
adoption of their national Constitution. 

Resolved, That we especially cherish his memory as one of the founders 
and most devoted members of this Society ; that we bear cheerful testimony 
to the strong interest which he ever manifested in the promotion of its ob- 
jects, and to the fidelity with which he discharged the duties of its most im- 
portant offices ; and that we are grateful for the privilege of an association 
with him, in the work of preserving a history with a large portion of which 
his own long life was so closely and honorably connected. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, this So- 
ciety, in a body, will attend his funeral. 

Resolved, That we respectfully tender to the family of the deceased, our 
sympathy in their bereavement ; and that a copy of these Resolutions be trans- 
mitted to them by the Secretar}-. 

Resolved, That these Resolutions be entered upon the records of this Soci- 
ety, and published in the newspapers. 

Attest : 

H. T. BECKWITH, Secretary:' 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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